Back-beat, the word is on the street
That the fire in your heart is out
I'm sure you've heard it all before
But you never rally had a doubt
I don't believe that anybody
Feels the way I do about you now
-Wonderwall (Oasis)
"Okay class, that was the bell...now, who can tell me what that means?" Mr. Clarkson asked as everyone took their seats, grumbling and rolling their eyes. He smiled lightly, "Very good. Gold stars for everyone. Now, I know how much you all just love group projects, so we'll be starting a new one today-" they all brightened, "-and I'll be selecting your groups." and it was back to normal. He smiled again, "Now don't be so upset. It's not hard. This is drama for god's sake. It's not hard, and you don't even have to write your own script. All you have to do read the already written scene. And besides, don't we all love Shakespeare?" the class groaned, a few heads hitting the desks. He rolled his eyes, "Oh, come on, all of you are in tenth grade, I think you're a little past the whining stage." Everyone fell silent, although no one looked especially happy about the assignment. Mr. Clarkson sat on his desk, "Okay, so, since we're all so ready for this, I'll tell you what's going on.
"We're doing Romeo and Juliet, and before any of you start complaining, remember that I take everything into account at the end of the semester when report cards go out. Now, everyone has to participate, whether you're going to act or be stage crew. I don't care, but everyone has to do something. Certain people who I have seen act will be forced to do that, all apologies included. Now, I want all of you to take a script," he dropped a thick stack of scripts on the floor by his desk, "and start memorizing. Everyone will do a read through for me and tell me whether you want to be in stage crew or act and I will assign the parts and who will do lighting and stage. Now please remember, Shakespeare is classic, and as actors it is our duty not to take away from the integrity of the play, so please take this seriously." he turned and sat in the chair behind his desk.
Chairs scraped the floor as everyone stood up to get their scripts. Rory grabbed one slowly,
flipping through it. Stage crew, definitely. Mr. Clarkson nodded to the empty room attached to his classroom. "Half the class will read through today and half will read through tomorrow. Louise, you're up first." she looked at her script, following him into the room. Tristan threw his script onto his chair and slid across Rory's desktop. She looked up at him, expressionless.
"Oh come on, that was impressive and you know it."
She just shook her head, "What do you want, Tristan?"
"Nothing, why do I always have to want something to talk to you?"
"Hmm, I dunno. Oh, by the way, you owe me a blow pop."
He laughed lightly, "I do?"
"Yes, you stole mine last week, and I want another one."
"I'll see what I can do."
Rory nodded, "You do that." she looked down at her script and ignored him.
Tristan watched her with an amused expression, "Are you serious?"
She looked up at him, "What?"
"Why are you reading that? We both know you're going to be stage crew."
"Oh? And why is that?"
"Because," he smiled at her, "you have no intention of memorizing enough lines to be in a play, either because you just don't see the point or you don't have the attention span. Plus I know that you would love to do lighting because you think the colors are so pretty, or you'd want to do set design because painting is easy and you could easily just paint the flats rather than actually make a set and no one in their right mind would rather learn lines than paint and get an A."
She leaned back in her chair, "Oh?"
He nodded, "Yeah. I mean seriously, Rory, you know you're not going to seriously audition. You don't care enough, plus it would kill you if you did get a role and took it away from the people who really want it."
"And what makes you so sure about that?" she asked, although her smile didn't fall.
"I just know you that well."
Rory bit her lip, looking down, "Do you?"
Tristan nodded, "Yeah. I do."
She looked back up at him, "Stop it."
He threw his hands up, "Doing what? I'm not doing anything."
"Tristan, I'm serious. This isn't fair. Besides, you're dating Vicky. So do not do this."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
She didn't smile, "Tristan."
He looked away from her, "Fine. I'm done."
"Thank you." she leaned back, looking anywhere but at him.
Tristan slid off of her desk, touching her face gently before walking over to talk to some boy named Austin. She exhaled a shaky breath, closing her eyes and resting her forehead in her palm. This couldn't be happening to her.
NEXT DAY
Rory sat at one of the long lunch tables, talking to Madeline when Devin and Tristan came in and sat across from them, "I loathe this school. I swear to God, if they make me write another paper..."
She smiled at her brother, "What's the problem?" He tossed a stapled packet onto the table in front of her, and she tilted her head, picking it up. "Um, Devin, this is a 96, most of the people that have your English teacher bombed this paper."
He nodded impatiently, "Yes, I know this, but that's the third paper I've had to write since I've been here, which is less than a month."
She nodded, "Poor baby."
"I don't think you're being very sincere." Devin said as Vicky came up and slid into the seat next to Tristan.
"Good call. I'd say you're improving."
"Ha ha." he sat back in his seat, glancing over at Vicky, "How did you do on the English paper?"
She shook her head, "Don't even ask."
"See? Even Vicky bombed it, so stop complaining." Rory told him, rolling her eyes as he gllared at her.
"Did you fail it too?" Vicky asked her brother.
Devin turned to look at her, "No. I got a 96, but that doesn't change the fact that it was pointless to write."
"And why is that?"
"Because, Sylvia Plath was a maniac, it's common knowledge that she was insane. You just have to read The Bell Jar to know that. It's a damn autobiographical novel. I see no point in forcing us to write a paper on her life, I know all about her thanks to Rory-" he shot her a glance, "-because she forced me to read The Bell Jar in eighth grade."
Rory laughed lightly, smiling, "I did, didn't I?"
"Yes, and I hate you for ever for it."
She rolled her eyes, "You're over dramatic."
He shook his head, "Oh no. I'm serious. That woman was insane."
"And amazing. It's not her fault she was mentally unstable."
"I didn't say she wasn't an amazing writer."
Rory smiled, crossing her legs under the table as Summer waltzed in, sitting down next to Vicky. She and Rory exchanged a glare before ignoring each other's existence. Tristan snickered and Rory rolled her eyes. There was a navy blue ribbon with white polka dots tied around her neck as a choker, and she amused herself by playing with the excess ribbon at the back of her neck. The other people at the table carried on their conversations, and she was about to join in when her cell phone rang. She looked down at her bag and pulled it out, glancing at the screen and not recognizing the number, "Hello?"
"Hola."
Rory smiled lightly, "Hey Erin." Devin swung around to face her, and Tristan nearly dropped his Coke. She ignored Tristan, he was really bad at acting like they'd never known each other, and looked over at Devin, biting her lip lightly, "New number?"
"Yeah. My other phone got thrown into a pool, which kinda killed it, and then it got washed, which really killed it. So my dad just said to go buy a new one and he gave me another credit card. I love my daddy." Rory laughed and Erin smiled, "Yeah, I know, but what can I say? I'm a material girl."
"Yes I know, trust me. I've been shopping with you."
Erin laughed, "What? I can't help it."
"And how exactly did your phone get thrown in the pool?" Rory asked, smiling.
"Eh, let me clarify: I go thrown into a pool, and my phone was in my pocket."
"Nice. Who threw you in a pool?"
"Tray. It actually kinda reminded me of the time we were in Key West and everybody wound up thrown in."
Rory laughed, leaning her head back, "Where were you?"
"You remember Chance McKinney?"
"Yeah, I think so."
"He was having a party."
"Oh."
When Rory didn't say anything else, Erin spoke, "So, what are you doing now?"
"I'm sitting in the cafeteria."
"Oh fun."
"Tell me about it."
Erin was silent for a moment, "Is Devin..." she trailed off.
"Yeah, he's right here." her brother blinked biting his lower lip, "You want to talk to him?"
Erin was silent again, "No." she said quietly.
Rory looked down, and Devin exhaled slowly, glancing up at Tristan. His friend looked down, he hadn't known that Devin and Erin had broken up when they moved. Rory said something into the phone quietly and hung up. She sighed, looking between the two boys, and her comment was directed at Devin, "She says hey." Her brother nodded, but didn't say anything.
DRAMA
Rory was sitting on top of her desk, looking over the script. Tristan slid into the chair connected to her desk. She didn't have to look up to know it was him. She shifted her right leg so that it was under her left thigh and Tristan could sit comfortably, "Hey."
He rested his feet on the foot rack of the desk in front of him, "Having fun?"
"Immensely."
"I can tell."
"I figured that was why you asked."
He opened his mouth to reply, but Mr. Clarkson opened the door and called out, "Hayden,
Dugrey, you're the only ones who haven't read and we don't have time for you to go separately" they looked at each other, but neither moved. The teacher rolled his eyes, "That means you come together, now get over here." Rory slid off the desk and Tristan stood up. They walked slowly to the back room and the teacher closed the door behind them. "Okay. Just read through as much of the balcony scene as you can." he sat and they stood still, unsure of exactly what to do. "Come on, we don't have all day." Tristan shrugged and turned to face her, grinning as he started reading through the script.
Fifteen minutes later he stopped them. He didn't say a word, just stared at them with a sour look on his face. Tristan glanced between the teacher and Rory, unsure of what to do, and he saw that she was just as confused. "Mr. Dugrey, I loathe my fifth period class, did you know that?"
Tristan glanced over at Rory, taken aback, before looking back over at Mr. Clarkson, "Um, no, I wasn't aware of that, sir."
"Well I do. And do you know why?"
"Why is that?"
"Because you're in this class."
Rory let out a short burst of laughter and Tristan looked over at her, a shocked and amused expression in place. "Um, is there a reason that you hate me?"
"Simply, because you have so much talent. I mean, you could easily have the part of Romeo with no competition, but you don't want it. And I could give it to you, but you would be lazy with it. You just don't care. Same with you, Rory. You could easily have Juliet, you're extremely talented, but I can tell that you just don't care. You frustrate me. Both of, you, but you more so, Tristan." the bell rang and he sighed, grabbing his legal pad, "What would you like to do in the play?"
"Set." they said in unison, and then looked at each other in surprise. Mr. Clarkson let out a string of profanities and they both darted out of the audition area before he decided to throw things at them. Once they got into the classroom, they realized that they were the only ones left in the room.
Tristan looked over at her and smirked, "I told you that you'd be set."
She shrugged, smiling as she picked up her bag and made her way out of the room, "And you're just so proud of yourself, aren't you?"
Tristan grabbed his bag and followed her out, "Actually, yeah, I kinda am."
A/N: okay, like i said, short chapter, i'm not sure when i'll be able to get the next chapter out, but i will work on it, i swear.